Essential Knowledge:The Enlightenment • Applied reason to the human world, as well as to the rest of the natural world • Stimulated religious tolerance • Fueled democratic revolutions around the world Enlightenment thinkers and their ideas• Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan: Humans exist in a primitive “state of nature” and consent to government for self-protection. • John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government: People are sovereign and consent to government for protection of natural rights to life, liberty, and property. • Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws: The best form of government includes a separation of powers. • Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract: Government is a contract between rulers and the people. • Voltaire: Religious toleration should triumph over religious fanaticism; separation of church and state. Influence of the Enlightenment • Political philosophies of the Enlightenment fueled revolution in the Americas and France. • Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence incorporated Enlightenment ideas. • The Constitution of the United States of America and Bill of Rights incorporated Enlightenment ideas.